The Missing Year: Soul Survivor
by SadArticle
Summary: Another episode in my 'E-mails' series, getting Bonnie's take on Kitt's adventures in season two. Soul Survivor is a classic, of course, and I'm sure Bonnie would have had a lot more to say to Michael than 'To a woman who picked you up on the side of the road? How could you' Please read and review.


The Missing Year: Soul Survivor

_A/N: Once again, I did have full (fake) e-mail addresses for both Kitt and Bonnie, but this site spoiled all my fun. Many, many thanks to Vespurrs for her eagle eye and unFLAGging support (sorry)._

From: k2000

Date: Thursday November 17, 1983 11:15

To: bbarstow

Subject: Pac-man

Bonnie, you may recall previously programming me with the entire range of software from Deltron Micronics, including a deceptively innocuous game called Pac-man. I now have cause to question your usual high standard of technical support, in that you neglected to _uninstall_ that distracting program before you left the Foundation. Michael can spend hour after hour playing the same game. He always needs 'just a few more points' to reach 'one more level', while leaving me to drive the car and talk to myself. I am quite sure my graphics card will burn out before he does, which might be the only way of stopping him. Michael, of course, considers his gaming addiction an honor, in that he is finally 'getting into computers'. Well, I sincerely hope for his sake that this new yellow friend knows how to do more than consume everything in its path, because this car is no longer big enough for the both of us. Thank goodness we are nearly home.

On a more productive note, do you have plans for Thanksgiving next week? If you are unable to travel home to the east coast for the holidays, please remember that you have a second family here at the Foundation who will always welcome you back.

From: k2000

Date: Thursday November 17, 1983 11:57

To: bbarstow

Subject: re: Pac-man

Bonnie, are you there? I need your help urgently. I have been attacked. My CPU has been stripped from the car, and I am uncertain if my internal modem has enough range, but if you do receive this, contact April or Devon immediately. I am unable to make long-range transmissions on the private carrier frequency without the Knight 2000 to amplify the signal. My message to you was the last communication program running, so I am testing a theory that I can still contact you. I have no method of establishing Michael's location, but he failed to answer when I called for him over the comlink. The emergency recovery program keeps trying to engage, but if the Knight 2000 is out of range – Oh, Bonnie, what will happen to me? Please help if you can.

To: k2000

Date: Thursday November 17, 1983 11:57

Delivery Status Notification (Delay)

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipient has been delayed:

bbarstow

The message will be retried for 1 more day

From: bbarstow

Date: Thursday November 17, 1983 17:24

To: k2000

Subject: Game over

Kitt, if Pac-man has overstayed his welcome, simply delete the software yourself. Michael should be paying attention to the road, not playing games while you drive. Tell him there's a glitch in the application, or that your power packs are running low. If all else fails, hack into the program and erase his point score. What level is he at, anyway?

I have been busy, but in the best way. After attending a seminar on human-computer interaction yesterday, I got into a big debate with my mentor about transhumanism, which led to spending nearly the whole of today in the computer lab trying to prove a point! So I can hardly lecture Michael on 'getting into computers'. I'm not sure what I'm doing for Thanksgiving, Kitt, but it's still too soon to be calling on everyone there. Maybe next year. I do miss my 'second family' – even Michael Knight! – and a part of me continues to think of the Foundation as home, only I need to keep looking forwards, not back. You're still the high score of my career, though, Kitt, and that will never be beaten! Keep in touch, and let me know if you manage to wean Michael off his addiction.

From: k2000

Date: Thursday November 17, 1983 19:38

To: bbarstow

Subject: re: Game over

Bonnie! Did you receive my last e-mail, sent at 11:57 this morning? When I reconnected to the Knight Industries network, I found an automatic delay notification and your reply to my earlier message. Please disregard any prior communication. I am safe. Michael was drugged, but not harmed. Everything else, April assures me, can be fixed in time.

I beg your pardon – if you did not receive my last e-mail, then none of this will make any sense. I am still attempting to 'recover my equilibrium', as they say. Bonnie, I have been violated! My CPU was forcibly removed and then discarded, after repeated attempts to break into my programming, and the Knight 2000 has been stolen. Michael was dumped by the roadside to make his own way back to the Foundation, and only a strange – connection? – helped him to trace my CPU or I might have been lost for good (how did he know I was there, Bonnie?)

April reports that my memory is intact and it seems that the only programs and sub-routines that are unrecoverable concern the operation of the car – but I have been stripped of my identity, Bonnie. Nobody seems to understand what that is like for me. I have no external sensors, apart from the webcam and microphone attached to a terminal in the clean room, and you know how I hate that. April says she is working on a temporary solution, but if I am confined to base, as it were, how can I help Michael locate and reclaim the Knight 2000? How can I protect him?

He came back for me, Bonnie, but what can I do for him now? Instead of a powerful engine and an indestructible shell, he found a microprocessor – unresponsive and useless. I was not programmed to be a desktop computer, Bonnie, and making the adjustment from mobility and limited autonomy to listening and waiting is – if I may be so bold as to employ the phrase – soul-destroying.

From: bbarstow

Date: Thursday November 17, 1983 20:14

To: k2000

Subject: re: re: Game over

I just picked up your e-mail, Kitt – nothing from this morning, or I would have broken the speed limit to get to you. Why must emergencies like this always strike when I'm miles away and unable to help? First Garthe Knight with that overblown semi in Las Vegas, and now this!

Before I even ask what happened, let me tell you something, Kitt: _you are not the Knight 2000_. You are so much more, especially to me. The car was Wilton Knight's creation, and of course I hope that Michael can get it back, but if the worst happens, then Knight Industries can build you another. (I'm sure Devon is aware, but if you need them, then Wilton Knight's concept team consisted of three men: Drs. Von Voorman, Breeland and Yamata.) You would not be so easy to replace; that 'unresponsive and useless' microprocessor is the least of what – and who – you have become, with and without my help. I'm so glad that _you_ are safe, Kitt.

Now comes your turn to lecture me, because I know we've had this out before: I'm sorry for letting you down, Kitt. I have to take the blame here – I was so busy strengthening the defences for your CPU that I obviously left gaping holes in the security of the Knight 2000. How did they get in, Kitt? I assume they hacked the engine control unit, but how did they break the access codes? And where the hell was Michael when this was going on? Sorry – again – I know he was hurt too, but I have to vent my frustration on someone! How could he let this happen?

At least Michael knew where to find you. That's something, I guess. Did you manage to get a signal through to him before the Knight 2000 was lost? The homing device in the car would have been no use, obviously. You should have your own GPS locator transmitter built in to your CPU – perhaps April can design and install a tracker while you're in the lab with her. Try to be patient, Kitt – I know that being connected to a server has always given you the computer version of cabin fever, but I'm sure the team are working hard to find a short-term alternative while the Knight 2000 is missing. In fact, this reminds me of when you interfaced with the ECU for the first time after being installed in the car – I watched you powering through the start-up sequence and knew that you were somehow complete. You will feel like that again, Kitt. I promise.

I said I would try to be more diplomatic and leave April to do her job, but if you need me, Kitt, just say the word. I can be back in LA first thing in the morning.

From: k2000

Date: Friday November 18, 1983 14:02

To: bbarstow

Subject: Back on the road

I must apologize for my tardiness in replying, Bonnie, but until April is able to establish a remote link to Centra-Comp, I am only able to send e-mails from the Foundation. I have been 'on the road' with Michael all morning – after a fashion. April has installed me in what she terms a 'portable recovery unit', but which apparently resembles a television set (so Bob kindly informed me). I can communicate with Michael again, but visual surveillance is limited to one fixed-angle camera. And of course, _Michael_ now has to carry _me_ everywhere, because we are taking advantage (in both senses, I fear) of Devon's treasured Mercedes roadster. The way Michael drives, Devon may come to regret his generous loan, if he is not already aware of what he has let his car in for.

Thank you for your support, Bonnie. Without the Knight 2000 – regardless of the distinction you make between my CPU and the car that has been my body for fourteen months now – I am, to coin a phrase, not quite myself. When you were typing those words yesterday evening, what did you envisage while thinking of me? I understand that the human mind tends to provide mental images, from the memory or the imagination, while a person is reading. I would lay odds, as they say, that what you associate visually with 'Kitt' would be my voice modulator, dashboard or perhaps even the scanner as part of the whole car, rather than my CPU casing. Even you, Bonnie, with your technical expertise of my internal components and circuitry, would tend to see the car before the computer. Can you imagine how Michael must view me now? Losing control of the Knight 2000 was distressing, but enduring Michael's diminished respect has proven to be the most unsettling aspect of this whole situation. He, too, has been very supportive, yet I can sense – figuratively speaking – that he misses being behind the wheel as much as I do.

We now know who was responsible for the theft of the Knight 2000, if not why we were targeted in the first place. The hacker's tricks were clever enough to gain him possession of the car, but not my microprocessor – although he did try, persistently and with increasing determination. Time was of the essence, otherwise he may well have succeeded. Michael traced them both to a remote location this morning, and the Knight 2000 was there – under remote control. I was unable to witness the confrontation directly, but apparently the hacker programmed my body to intercept us and somehow executed a Turbo Boost over Devon's convertible, managing to land in one piece on the road behind. Michael was perceptibly shaken by the experience, I could tell. He is familiar with the power, speed and handling of the car, and trusts that I am there to assist in controlling the systems that he cannot, but without either Michael or myself in the driver's seat, my black shell poses the same menace to public safety as KARR did previously. The only difference, as Michael told me, is that the hijacked Knight 2000 (and KARR, for that matter) 'didn't have my soul'.

From: bbarstow

Date: Friday November 18, 1983 14:55

To: k2000

Subject: re: Back on the road

Kitt, don't do that to me again! I thought you were offline for good when I didn't hear back from you. I realize circumstances are out of your control, but I've been tying myself in knots here. Have you been out all morning? No wonder it's taking April so long to set up a remote connection for you! Tell Michael to let her do her job – and you will need to charge your systems more often, Kitt, while the Knight 2000 is still missing in action.

I know how much you have come to identify with the car, Kitt, but I promise you, for all the time I spent working on and under that machine, I was constantly aware of the CPU behind the dashboard and the voice activating the modulator. Even the scanner told me more about how you were feeling than whether or not the car's sensors were working! And Michael surely feels the same by now, even if his primary focus often seems to be the fast car (like all men) and not the computer in control. The fact that he's out there, devaluing Devon's convertible in a bid to reclaim the Knight 2000 on your behalf, should show you how he feels, and how much he owes you for keeping him safe.

Speaking of which, I'm sure Michael must have been terrified, experiencing Turbo boost from a more vulnerable angle, but does this mean you are close to getting the car back? I can't understand what this hacker is doing with the Knight 2000, apart from playing with a life-size R/C toy.

That's just given me an idea, Kitt – if he, or they, are controlling the car by electronic impulses, then you can too, up to a point. If April reprograms your CPU so that you can send and receive signals to operate the car, then in theory you could establish a temporary network. Your range would be limited, probably to within a few meters, but you would be able to access low-level sub-routines like the auto roof/micro-jam functions, which I'm sure Michael will find a use for! You might even get some feedback from the scanner.

Recharge, work with April – and stay in touch, Kitt!

From: k2000

Date: Friday November 18, 1983 16:33

To: bbarstow

Subject: Checking in

Good afternoon, Bonnie. I have been offline for 2.5 hours, allowing April to boost the strength of my internal modem and reprogram me to interface with the Knight 2000. There is no need to worry. When next we cross paths with our car, I will be fully equipped to assist Michael in wresting control from the hacker, I can assure you.

The misguided miscreant who perpetrated the theft, overriding me in the process, probably had no other motive than cracking a powerful computer. He is a high school student named Randy Merritt, whose programming skills I would actually admire if he put them to better use. The criminal party with an actual agenda is a woman named Adrianne Margeaux. She planned everything, from drugging Michael to seducing Randy Merritt into a life of computer crime. Michael thinks he may have a lead back to the Foundation's board of directors, which worries me more than being the victim of a random attack. Perhaps Wilton Knight was correct not to trust anyone beyond Mr Miles after all.

I have to go, Bonnie. Devon has arranged for Michael to meet with Mr Atherton at the hotel this evening.

From: bbarstow

Date: Friday November 18, 1983 16:59

To: k2000

Subject: 'The best way to find out if you can trust someone is to trust them'

Hey, Kitt. I'm glad that your confidence is returning, even without getting the car back, but don't give up on humankind just yet! Are you talking about a man named George Atherton? I remember him visiting with Wilton Knight in the early days of the Knight 2000 project. I doubt he would consciously betray his friend's legacy.

Don't get carried away with 'assisting' Michael, Kitt, no matter how badly you want the Knight 2000 back – you're still vulnerable to attack, you know, and Michael too. Good luck with Atherton – keep me posted.

From: k2000

Date: Friday November 18, 1983 20:37

To: bbarstow

Subject: re: 'The best way to find out if you can trust someone is to trust them'

Applying my chequered understanding of 'human kind' to Michael's brief interview with George Atherton, I would have to agree with your appraisal of his character, Bonnie. His betrayal of Wilton Knight's legacy – the Knight 2000 – was indeed unwitting, but he was still responsible for leaking classified information to an unscrupulous third party. Our status here – and the work we do – is precarious at best, without infatuated businessmen bringing new adversaries to our door. I have been made all too aware of how 'vulnerable' I am, Bonnie – to attack, to deactivation, to the future – and that there is nothing I can do to protect myself. At least with the Knight 2000, I am better equipped to protect _Michael_, which after all is my dominant program.

Based upon information supplied by Mr Atherton, we are planning to intercept our car – and apprehend the thieves – tomorrow. I will let you know if our plan is successful.

From: bbarstow

Date: Saturday November 19, 1983 09:32

To: k2000

Subject: Be careful

I used to tell the pair of you to be careful at the start of every mission, and then hang around the semi on standby to see what condition he'd return you in. I'll let you into a secret, Kitt – I mostly nagged Michael out of relief, not irritation. Getting on his case about sand in your systems, or damage to your alpha circuits, was better than not being able to say anything at all. I'm sorry for that now.

Still, if your CPU is damaged because Michael forgets which car he's driving, I will be making a stopover in LA for Thanksgiving and it won't be pleasant. Don't (let him) take any risks, Kitt. The Knight 2000 will have all the same capabilities and defenses, remember, plus the added danger of an inexperienced operator. Michael's right in that respect, Kitt – you complete the car, not the other way around.

Stay safe and good luck. I'll be at home all day.

From: k2000

Date: Saturday November 19, 1983 13:10

To: bbarstow

Subject: Thanksgiving stopover

Good afternoon, Bonnie. You may notice from my IP address that I am no longer being routed through Centra-Comp. I am back where I belong, with both mind and body intact. April is insisting on a full service and system check tomorrow, but I was already interfacing with the Knight 2000 when we returned to the Foundation, so she agreed to reinstall my CPU on a provisional basis. Just being able to view my surroundings from every direction and speak with the proper tone and bass to my voice is such a relief, Bonnie. Michael had to drive the car back to the Foundation, but I was monitoring every sensor and gauge along the way, and I have already taken the car for a quick test run. Damage seems minimal – no more than my steering, brakes and suspension usually endure, at least – and nearly all of my functions are back online. I am complete again, Bonnie, just like you said.

Michael and Devon took pity on Randy Merritt and let him go, even though the most effective punishment would simply have been to take his computer away from him. Adrianne Margeaux is under arrest for grand theft auto, industrial piracy and anything else that the FLAG/Knight Industries lawyers can come up with. I hesitate to divulge why she wanted the Knight 2000 in the first place, apart from requiring an ingenuous large-scale alternative to the humble can opener ...

At least the holidays are coming up. Now Bonnie – I cross-referenced my memory banks with your last e-mail, in case of possible data corruption, but find that you did indeed threaten to make 'a stopover in LA for Thanksgiving'. Since I am undamaged, and Michael was actually responsible for restoring me to the Knight 2000, then might I suggest a compromise: a brief but _pleasant_ visit with your second family?

FIN


End file.
